But he had to ignore it. The baby was what mattered now. Rafe needed Isla to marry him so he could nurture and provide for their child. He just had to convince her to accept his proposal.
And convince her he would.
CHAPTER THREE
A SHORT TIME later Isla was propped up with pillows on Rafe’s king-sized bed, the soft cashmere throw rug covering her legs, waiting for the meal he had ordered to arrive. The doorbell sounded in the suite and Rafe opened the door and the young male waiter—whom Isla had met once or twice in the staff quarters—brought in the Room Service silver service trolley. The waiter’s brows rose when he saw Isla but, before she could explain why she was currently lying on a guest’s bed, Rafe handed the young man a ridiculously generous tip and informed him that his fiancée would no longer be working for the hotel.
‘But I haven’t agreed to—’ Isla began.
‘Congratulations.’ The young man beamed and pocketed the money. ‘Thank you, sir. Much appreciated. I hope you enjoy your stay.’
‘I’m already enjoying it immensely.’ Rafe’s tone contained a satirical note that set Isla’s teeth on edge.
Once the waiter had gone, Isla glowered at Rafe as he bent over her to place the tray of delicious food across her lap. ‘Fiancée? Did you listen to a word I said before about not marrying you?’
Once the tray was secure across her lap, Rafe sat on the edge of the bed beside her stretched out legs. ‘I was only thinking of your reputation, cara. Do you want the staff of this hotel to gossip about the housemaid who leapt into bed with a guest? Becoming my fiancée offers you an element of respectability, does it not?’
He had made a good point but Isla didn’t want to admit it. ‘They’ll gossip regardless. But that was your intention, wasn’t it? Our supposed engagement will be all over the hotel and God knows how many social media platforms within minutes.’
‘Good. It will save me making a formal announcement. Gossip works faster anyway.’
Isla ignored the food and kept glaring at him. ‘I’m not going to be bullied into marrying you, Rafe. You might be used to getting your way in the business world but you won’t get your way with me.’
One of his dark brows arched up and a glint appeared in his eyes. ‘From memory, it only took me forty-two minutes to get you from the bar and into my bed the first day we met.’
Isla could feel the hot bloom of colour spreading across her cheeks. ‘It won’t happen again.’
He leaned closer to brush a lazy finger over the pool of pink in her cheek. ‘Are you sure about that, tesoro mio? Remember how good we were together.’ His low deep voice with its edge of huskiness was doing serious damage to her resolve. ‘So explosive, sì?
Isla suppressed a shiver. She remembered all too well. She had never orgasmed with a partner before Rafe. She had not enjoyed sex the way it was meant to be enjoyed until his touch set her aflame. She wondered now if she would ever be able to make love with anyone else. The thought of doing it with anyone else made her flesh crawl. ‘Look, I know you want to do the honourable thing and all that, but really, Rafe, marriage is going to ridiculous extremes. We can still co-parent without—’
‘I want my child to have my name and my protection,’ Rafe said. ‘I want him or her to live under my roof so I can be involved in every aspect of its upbringing. Part-time parenthood is not an option.’
Isla pushed the tray away to the other side of the bed, her appetite completely deserting her. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. ‘I don’t want to talk about it. Not now.’ She moved over to the windows to stand with her back to him, her arms crossed over her chest. The sunshine had faded and a bank of ominous-looking clouds had drifted in from Arthur’s Seat, making the dark fortress of Edinburgh Castle look all the more forbidding.
‘Will you at least come back to Sicily with me? Think of it as a holiday. Let me take care of you and the baby and then you can make your final decision in a few weeks.’ Rafe’s voice had lost its commanding edge and it made it so much harder for her to think of a valid reason why she shouldn’t go with him.
What did she have to lose by going with him? Just for a week or two until she began to feel a little stronger. Life had been a constant struggle since she’d left him. It had been hard trying to work and cope with gruelling nausea and the fatigue common in early pregnancy. If it hadn’t been for her friend Layla helping her out with casual cleaning work at this hotel, Isla didn’t know what she would have done. It wasn’t as if she had a family network to call on to support her.
There was no one.
Or at least no one she wanted looking after her.
Isla turned to meet his gaze with her sceptical one. ‘But will you accept my final decision?’
His expression gave no clue to what he was thinking or feeling. ‘I will respect your decision once I am sure you’re in the right frame of mind and healthy enough to make it.’ He rose from the edge of the bed and picked up the tray and placed it on a nearby table. ‘Now, eat this meal while I make the arrangements. We will leave tomorrow. Don’t worry about packing—most of your things are still at my villa.’
Isla frowned. ‘But...but why?’
‘You didn’t leave a return address. I decided to wait until I heard from you.’
‘You weren’t tempted to throw them all out?’
He gave her a wry smile. ‘Oh, I was tempted. But I thought it would be much more satisfying to have you pick them up in person.’
* * *
Isla woke from a deep and refreshing nap to find herself alone in the penthouse. She got off the bed and stretched, feeling immensely relieved that all remnants of her headache had gone. For a moment she wondered if she should leave the hotel while she had the chance. Disappear before things got even more complicated. Remove herself from the temptation of Rafe’s company. The temptation of his touch. But was running away again going to change anything? She was having his baby and he had a right to be involved in its upbringing. He had expressed a desire to be involved and she had to honour that.
But going to Sicily with him was a big step. A dangerous step, but the thought of continuing to work in a job she wasn’t truly cut out for made her feel even more conflicted than spending a couple of weeks at Rafe’s villa. Besides, she knew Layla had only given her the part-time work as a personal favour. She wouldn’t be able to continue working much longer into the pregnancy anyway.
Isla fished her phone out of her tote bag and dialled Layla’s number and briefly explained the situation.
‘Seriously? You’re going back to Sicily with him?’ Layla’s voice rose in shock. ‘But I thought you said you never wanted to see him again?’
Isla sighed. ‘Yes, well, it seems I might have misjudged him a bit. He sounds really keen about the baby and is insisting on marrying me. Not that I’ve agreed to it or anything. How could I, given the difference in our backgrounds?’
‘Marriage? Gosh, that’s a bit extreme, isn’t it?’ Layla said.
‘Those were exactly my words,’ Isla said. ‘He doesn’t love me and the last thing I want to do is marry someone who doesn’t love me. But I’m only going with him to Sicily for a short holiday. I figure I owe him that at the very least.’
‘But your background might not be an issue for him. Have you thought of telling him about it? About the photos too?’
‘I can’t do either. I can’t risk him looking at me like I’m something he wants to scrape off the bottom of his handmade Italian leather shoes.’
‘Mmm, I hear you.’ Layla sighed. ‘But what if he doesn’t? What if he doesn’t care what happened in your past? You were with him two months without anyone finding out. Why would marrying him be any different?’
‘We flew under the radar when it was just a fling,’ Isla said. ‘Can you imagine what press interest an announcement of our engagement would bring? He’s one of Italy’
s most eligible bachelors. Everyone, and I mean everyone, will want to know everything they can about the woman he chooses as his bride.’
‘But is it wise to go to Sicily with him? I mean, you seem to have zero willpower when it comes to that man. He was your first and only one-night stand, remember? You. The girl who has to date someone like five times before you even think about kissing them, let alone sleeping with them.’
Isla was glad their phone call wasn’t a video one as she could feel heat creeping into her cheeks. ‘That’s rich coming from the girl who doesn’t even go as far as kissing a man before she rejects him out of hand.’
‘You know my reasons for that,’ Layla said. ‘You’ve seen my limp and the scars on my leg. Men today have such weak stomachs.’
‘One day you’ll meet a man who doesn’t even notice your limp and scars.’
Layla snorted. ‘I stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago. Anyway, we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you. I’m worried you’re going to get hurt all over again.’
‘I know what I’m doing this time around. I’m not going to do anything rash.’
‘Maybe on some level you do love him but don’t want to admit it.’
Her feelings about Rafe were confusing to say the least. She wouldn’t go as far as saying she was in love with him, but neither could she understand why her attraction to him was so powerful and irresistible. ‘I’m not in love with him. In lust, maybe, but that’s not enough to build a marriage on.’
‘I don’t know about that,’ Layla said. ‘It’s a damn good start. Besides, a marriage of convenience can often turn into something else. It happens.’
‘I thought you stopped reading fairy tales?’
‘Touché,’ Layla said with a little laugh. ‘But seriously, Isla, you should give it some thought. You’ve made a baby together. It would be wonderful to be able to bring up the baby in a stable and secure home, unlike what we had growing up. And you could do a lot worse than Rafael Angeliri.’
‘I know, but it’s a big step and I need more time to think about it.’
Rafe had come crashing back into her life, making her feel things she didn’t want to feel. The closer she got to him, the more dangerous it became. Lust often masqueraded as love and vice versa. Loving someone was too dangerous. It gave them the power to hurt you. To leave you. To reject you. She couldn’t allow herself to experience the emotional devastation of her childhood all over again.
‘Does he want to sleep with you?’ Layla asked. ‘I mean, did you get that vibe?’
‘He’s a hot-blooded thirty-five-year-old man. Of course, I got that vibe, but I’m going to do my best to resist him.’
‘Good luck with that.’
Isla had a feeling she was going to need more than luck. She was going to need a flipping miracle.
* * *
When Rafe came back to the penthouse, Isla was standing looking out at the view of Edinburgh Castle and the Princes Street Gardens below. She turned when he came in but it was hard to read her expression.
‘Weren’t you worried I might do a runner?’ she asked.
He shrugged one shoulder. ‘I would have found you without too much trouble. Hotel management have your address.’ He held up the small travel bag he was carrying. ‘I took the liberty of going to your flat and picking up a few of your things. Your landlady was most obliging when I told her we are a couple.’
Her eyebrows snapped together in a frown. ‘You did what?’ Her hands balled into fists at her sides. ‘You had no right to—’
‘As your baby’s father, I have the right to make sure your health and safety is my top priority,’ Rafe said, placing the bag on the luggage rack. ‘I’ve arranged a flight in the morning. You can spend the night here with me.’
‘I’m not sleeping in that bed with you.’ Her voice vibrated with fury and her eyes flashed blue streaks of lightning. ‘You can’t make me.’
‘As much as I would love to prove you wrong, cara, on this occasion I will gladly relinquish my place in the bed and sleep on the sofa. You need your rest before we travel tomorrow.’
She continued to glower at him like her eyes were heat lamps. ‘I want to make something perfectly clear. I’m only going to Sicily with you to rest and recuperate. Not to resume our...our fling.’
‘Fine, but you will need to share my bed at my villa because I don’t want my staff speculating on our relationship,’ Rafe said. ‘You will be there as my fiancée. That is one thing I will not compromise on. You are no longer a casual lover. You are the mother of my soon-to-be-born child.’
Her shoulders stiffened and her lips flattened. ‘You think I won’t be able to help myself, don’t you? You think once I lie down next to you I’ll be crawling all over you begging you to make love to me.’
That was exactly what Rafe thought. Trouble was, he was exactly the same. She might pretend to be immune to him but he knew her too well to buy it. And as for his own immunity to her? He had none. He was as aware of her as he had ever been—maybe even more so. ‘The decision as to whether or not we resume our physical relationship will be entirely up to you.’
She spun away so her back was towards him, her arms wrapped around her body. ‘How many lovers have you had since I left? Or have you lost count?’ Her voice had a hoarse quality as if the question had come out against her will.
Rafe didn’t see any reason to lie. ‘None.’
Isla swung back around to face him, her expression etched in puzzlement. ‘None? But I saw pictures of you with...’ Her words and her gaze dropped away, her teeth savaging her lower lip.
He gave a rueful smile. ‘I went on dates, yes. But I didn’t sleep with anyone.’
Her gaze crept back up to meet his. ‘But why not?’
‘It didn’t feel appropriate until I worked out what went wrong with us.’
A frown crinkled her smooth forehead like tiny creases in silk. ‘But you’ve had plenty of breakups before ours. Do you normally take a time-out between flings to reflect on what went wrong?’
‘Not usually, but then again I’m normally the one to end a fling and I always know exactly why I’ve ended it.’ Mostly out of boredom and disinterest. The novelty and excitement having worn off. But it hadn’t with Isla. Not one little bit.
A spark of her old feistiness lit her gaze. ‘So that rankled, did it? That I got in first.’
It rankled far more than Rafe cared to admit. ‘If it hadn’t been for the pregnancy, would you have ended our fling when you did?’
Her eyes drifted out of reach of his and her hands made a business of straightening her clothes over her body. ‘Your track record isn’t great with relationships, Rafe. But then, nor is mine. We would have bored each other sooner rather than later.’
‘You didn’t show any signs of boredom. I haven’t had a more enthusiastic lover.’
Her cheeks were tinged with a delicate shade of pink. ‘It was just sex.’
‘Was it?’ Rafe had had plenty of ‘just sex’ and it had felt nothing like what they had shared during those passionate two months.
Isla moved a little further away as if she didn’t trust herself around him. Rafe didn’t trust himself either and had to keep a firm lid on his self-control, because all he wanted to do was prove to her how good they were together. To remind her of the scorching-hot passion that flowed so naturally between them. He could feel the pulse of it now. The crackling energy in the air tightening the atmosphere.
She flicked him a cutting glance, raising her chin in an imperious fashion. ‘You only want me now because you can’t have me. I’ve become a challenge to you.’
‘And you’re only resisting because we both know if I came over there and kissed you I would have you on that bed and naked within two minutes flat.’
Her gaze stayed locked on his but he could see the effort it cost her. Her
body gave a tiny shudder as if she was remembering every time they had landed on a bed in a hot tangle of naked limbs. ‘Don’t even think about it.’ Her voice sounded breathless and uneven. Her gaze slipped to his mouth, as if mentally recalling how it felt to have his lips crushed to hers.
Rafe was desperately trying not to think about it. He was getting hot and hard being in the same room as her. He had never kissed a more responsive mouth. He could still recall the pillow softness of her lips against his, the sweet milky vanilla and honey taste of her mouth, the heat and fire of her playful tongue.
Before he could stop himself, he closed the distance in slow measured strides, giving her plenty of time to move away if she wanted to. But she stayed statue-still, the ink-black circles of her pupils flaring the closer he got. Her slim throat moving up and down over a swallow, her tongue snaking out to moisten her lips. He took a handful of her luxuriant red-gold hair, watching as she momentarily closed her eyes like a cat anticipating the next sensual stroke of its master’s hand. ‘Tell me you don’t like me touching you like this, tesoro.’ He traced the outline of her mouth with a lazy fingertip, delighting in the way her lips parted with a soft gasp of need.
She placed her hands flat against his chest, her touch as searing as a brand, and he had to fight not to haul her closer to imprint his body on hers from pelvis to pelvis. Her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt and she moved a fraction nearer as if compelled by a force outside of her control. The same force that was drawing his body to her like a metal filing to a magnet. He sucked in a breath as her hips came into contact with his. The blood surging to his groin, swelling, stiffening, extending. How he had missed her! Missed the feel of her supple body against him, responding to him, needing him as much as he needed her. The feverish desire rippled through him in hot waves, shooting electrifying darts around his body. He slid a hand to the base of her spine, the lush curves of her bottom so close to the edge of his hand it made it tingle. He couldn’t take his eyes off her mouth. Her lips were naturally cherry-red, the top lip as full as the lower one and pushed up slightly in a cupid’s bow.
Cinderella's Scandalous Secret Page 5